Louis Lipsett

Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, to Richard and Etty Lipsett, in June 1874, Louis John Lipsett was raised in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, and Bedford, England, following his father's death in 1887. He was educated at Bedford School and took the Sandhurst entrance examination against the wishes of his tutors, entering the college and graduating 35th from his class of 120. In October 1894, Lipsett was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment, and took ship to India where he served for the next five years, mainly with the 2nd Battalion of his regiment, on the Northwest Frontier, participating in the Tirah campaign against the Afridi. In 1899 he and his regiment were ordered to South Africa for service in the Second Boer War. Although he did not serve in any significant actions Lipsett performed his duties well, in 1901 was promoted to captain and on his return to England in 1903 was recommended to attend the Staff College, Camberley. In 1905 he returned to South Africa as a staff officer (deputy-assistant adjutant and quartermaster general), to aid in the reconstitution of the colonial government, a task he performed until 1907, when he was posted back to his regiment and promoted from supernumerary captain to captain in March 1908. Based at Aldershot in Hampshire, Lipsett conducted both regimental business and operated as an aide-de-camp to the commander of the 2nd Division, Major General Theodore Edward Stephenson. In July 1911, Lipsett responded to the call from the Colonial Office for young staff officers to operate in colonial military academies, as military education had been standardised throughout the British Empire in 1909. He instigated numerous new training courses and special schools, establishing close ties with the Canadian military establishment and personally training most of the next generation of Canadian staff officers and generals. ==First World War==

At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 Lipsett was dispatched to British Columbia, the Pacific coastline of which was largely undefended and was believed to be at risk from the German East Asian Cruiser Squadron under Maximilian von Spee, which had embarked on a raiding campaign in the Pacific Ocean that would culminate in the Battle of Coronel and the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Lipsett recognised that there was no immediate threat to the Canadian coast and calmed fears whilst simultaneously organising the local militia forces and deploying the two submarines purchased by provincial Premier Richard McBride. The Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence Minister Sir Sam Hughes attempted to have him removed from the division in favour of Hughes' son Garnet, but Lipsett was so highly regarded in the Canadian military establishment that Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng, commanding the Canadian Corps, overruled Hughes. soon after receiving the appointment, led his division through the worst of the campaigns in 1916, including extensive operations during the Battle of the Somme. He received two more promotions, to brevet colonel in January 1917 and to substantive lieutenant colonel in February, and in April Lipsett's division was instrumental in the Canadian success at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The following September, however, the division took heavy casualties in bitter fighting at the Battle of Passchendaele. After each of these battles, Lipsett was forced to reconstitute and retrain his units with fresh drafts, so severe were the casualties his division took. By the time of August 1918, after the devastating German spring offensives earlier in the year, he was involved in the planning and execution of an assault on German positions by the entire Canadian Corps which is known as the Battle of Amiens which was completely successful and for which he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. 4th Division and death Through the rest of August, he was engaged in combat with the 3rd Canadian Division, but at the start of September Lieutenant General Currie, Byng's successor as GOC Canadian Corps since June 1917, and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium, arranged his transfer to the command of the British 4th Division in order that the Canadian Corps be entirely officered by Canadians. with his funeral attended by dozens of officers from the British and Canadian armies in France including Byng and Lipsett's close friend and corps commander, Currie. The burial party was provided by the unit he had entered the war in command of, the 8th Battalion, C.E.F., and amongst the mourners was the Edward, the Prince of Wales. After the war he was posthumously awarded the Croix d'officier de la Legion d'honneur and the Croix de Guerre by the French government. The Imperial War Graves Commission headstone erected over Lipsett's grave bears the inscription: OUT OF THE STRESS OF THE DOING / INTO THE PEACE OF THE DONE. ==See also==